Thornton, CO

Thornton Colorado Aquatic Center finally approved.

The long awaited joint venture between the Adams 12 school district and the City of Thornton to build the district's new aquatic facility at the Holly Sports complex in Thornton finally received Thornton City Council approval this week. The Holly Sports Complex is located on the Southwest corner of 136th Avenue and Holly Street and will be known as the Thornton Trailwinds Park and Open space. The joint agreement betweent the city and the school district is a first according to city staff members.

The Aquatic Center is scheduled to open in the fall of 2010 and will eventually be attached to the new recreation center the city is also planning for the area. According to the city's agreement with the school district, the pool will be available to city residents up to 40 percent of the time, when not in use by the district. Also, the city is planning a new dog park in the area, which is great news to those of us who love our four legged friends. The overall cost of the new Aquatic Center is projected at $18.8 million dollars.

Finally, the achieve better access to the area, the city recently approved a 2.8 million dollar plan to fund a street widening along 136th Avenue between Cherry and Holly in front of Horizon High School. The current two lane road is slated to become a five lane with a continuous center turn lane. Naturally, in the interests of safety, new traffic signals are planned in front of the high school and for the Aquatic Center entrance.

Stuart Dobson

Infinity Real Estate Services LLC
Thornton, Colorado
Denver Metro Colorado Homes for Sale
303.919.0309
Stuart@StuartDobson.com

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Thornton has been named a 'boomburb'

The March issue of Planning magazine has Thornton Colorado as the only Colorado city named with that moniker.  A 'boomburb' is defined as city with at least 100,000 residents that has experinced growth of at least 10 percent each decade since 1970, but that is still not the largest city in its metropolitan area.  According to the US Census, Thornton has grown at least 30 percent each decade and doubled in size between 1970 and 1980.  The current population is rated at almost 120,000 people. 

Much of the city's growth has occured in the last 5 to 10 years as the city has annexed new real estate.  However, Thornton Real Estate growth isn't just growth for growths sake according to the city's policy planning manager.  To provide a perpective of how much growth there has been, when Thornton first became a city in 1956, it had 786 acres of land, now it has almost 23,000 acres of land!  The city of Thornton has been planning for this land and housing growth, although it has somewhat stalled in the last couple years as the real estate boom and economy have soured.

Some of this growth is evidenced by the new Holly Sports Complex and the new Larkridge Shopping center at I-25 and Colorado Hwy 7.  There are still mixed use development being planned along the E-470 corridor and transit oriented real estate development around the (temporarily in limbo) FasTracks stations.  Additional new projects include the new Rangeview Library District's second city library that just broker ground March 28 at 128th Avenue and Holly Street, and the expansion of 136th Avenue between Cherry Street and Holly Street in front of Horizon High School.

What's happening in Homestead Hills

Two recent planned changes that will affect the Homestead Hills in Thornton community. 

First, it looks like the City of Thornton in finally going to put in some speed cushions in the neighborhood.  The residents have complained since the community started that there are too many drivers using the neighborhood as a shortcut to get to either; the Northbrook neighborhood or Horizon High School.  If the city would have simply extended East 140th Avenue when they were constructing the cell phone tower near the park, the park itself, or when the neighborhood was built this wouldn't have to be done now.  Many Homestead Hills residents talked to the city traffic engineer about this very proposal, but it fell on arrogant and deaf ears.  So, although the speed cushions are a good idea, they probably won't work that well, speed 'dips' would be better in our opinion.  Also, if E 140th Avenue was extended it would be a huge benefit to the Northbrook residents as it would allow a much faster way to get to Colorado Blvd. as well as allowing the fire station at 140th and Colorado to have quicker emergency access to Northbrook homeowners.  Finally, if the city does get funding from the stimulus package to improve Holly from 140th to 160th Avenue, the increased Holly traffic will also necessitate better emergency and police response via an extended 140th Avenue rather than trying to go thru the school zone at high speed in front of Horizon High School.

The second small change to Homestead Hills is occurring on the South side of the neighborhood right behind the Lutheran church and adjacent to the homes regarding the retention ponds.  Apparently, the two ponds are going to be re-escavated  to 15 feet deep and joined together to form one big pond.  Personally, I wish they would just make the re-configured ponds a 12 yrs. old and under dirt bike park for the residents.  I think it would be great to see more kids outside on ATV's and dirt bikes playing rather than indoors watching TV or on video games.  Sure there is the dirt and noise, but it may add vibrancy and excitement to the community.

For more information about what is happening in Homestead Hills, Northbrook or surrounding communities, or to find out what it happening with the latest real estate, housing or home selling trends, please contact us directly.

The Haven at York Street homes real estate 2008 sales analysis

Filing 1, Filing 3, and The Sanctuary

This is a year end analysis of The Haven at York Street residential home sales. We looked at active, under contract and sold properties for 2008 in Filing 1, Filing 3 and The Sanctuary. The new homes being built by Engle Homes are not included in this summary in Filing 4 because Engle Homes continues to build. These are the sold house results for 2008 for The Haven at York Street. It is important to know two facts before to analyzing home data: how many days are homes on the market before they are sold and the sold price of homes. The break down is separated into Filing 1 & 3 and then The Sanctuary.

How long and what average price?

The Haven at York Street home activity is as follows: The average days on market for sold properties in Filing 1 & 3 is 85 days and the average sold price is $331,600. Homes sold in The Sanctuary had an average days on market of 248 days and an average price of $397,500. What is interesting in Filing 1 & 3 is that for homes listed through June of 2008 the average days on market was 102 with an average sales price of $336,809 and a price differential from original list price to sold price of 94%. Homes listed after July 1st of 2008 averaged 68 days on the market with an average sales price of $318,736 and a price differential of 96%.

What does this data mean?

This is valuable home selling information for home owners interested in listing and selling their home. It is important to know your area and to remember that The Haven at York Street Homes will sell quicker and closer to the original listed price when priced properly for the market. The home sales data support the current trend in The Haven that homes are selling quicker in the second half of 2008 vs. the first half, but at a lower average price.

This reinforces the current Denver Metro sales trend of lower priced homes selling quicker. It is part of a normal, healthy real estate market recovery. If you are looking to relocate from The Haven, or perhaps to buy a new home, then it is probably important that your Thornton real estate professional be aware of the latest home selling information and current trends in the neighborhood.

While everyone fixates on how the average home price in Denver declined 13% in the last year, we overlook an important tenent of real estate: location, location, location. Every one of the 400+ neighborhoods in metro Denver we track had a slightly different response to the market!

The attached chart shows different neighborhoods in our region. Each region has the neighborhood’s name and the percentage of sales in the last twelve months that were either short sales or bank-owned properties. The second line has the price change in the twelve months from January to December 2008 vs. 2007. Next, you’ll see the average home price in the last twelve months and the average days on market (DOM). There had to be at least twenty sales in the last year for an area to be included. The numbers are more reliable in areas where there were more sales.

How can you use this information to help your clients make better decisions?